Tide waits for no man
by T'PeeJ
Summary: Gibbs ask Ducky to go back in time to save Kate. Ducky uses the TARDIS to do so, but a little more too. Sequel to "So this is where you've been"!


TITLE: Tide waits for no man  
FANDOM: Dr. Who/Navy NCIS  
RATING: PG  
Spoilers: Kill Ari part 2  
ARCHIVE: Sure, but let me know where.  
SUMMARY:  
DISCLAIMER: Navy NCIS is the properties of Belisarius Productions, Paramount Network Television and CBS. Doctor Who is the properties of BBC.

A future Doctor regeneration.

Picture if you will David McCallum (Illya Kuryakin-Man from UNCLE, Steel-Sapphire and Steel, Walter Thornhill-The Education of Max Bickford or in this case Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard of NCIS) as the Doctor. Welcome to my world.

Returning from Kate's funeral was a sad business. Ziva was still in Israel taking care of Ari's funeral. Everyone left the SecNav's plane as if it was a ghost ship.

They had been given a couple of extra days off by the new director, but Gibbs was hoping for a new assignment to keep his mind on something. Almost anything would be better a sick feeling he had over losing Kate. He had agents leave his team. He had scared agents away. This was the first time one of his agents died on him. His time in the Marines was another story. Marines die in the service of their country. He had several friends die in his arms. That Gibbs was use to, but this cut Gibbs to the core.

Gibbs went into work the next morning anyway. He still hadn't let anyone touch Kate's desk. Ziva wanted to use it, but Gibbs wasn't ready to give it away yet. It was still Kate's. He had no problem going through Chris Pacci or another agent's desk, Kate's he couldn't bring himself to do, yet.

Walking away from the bull pen, Gibbs made his way down to the morgue, the last place Kate's body was before she was buried. The lights were on in the morgue; Gibbs could see it before the doors to the elevator were completely open. Stepping off, Gibbs went in to find Doctor Mallard sitting at his desk looking at some papers.

"Jethro," said Ducky without turning around. "What are you doing in this morning?"

"What are you doing in, Doctor?" asked Gibbs. He stopped with the two autopsies tables between them. 'Doctor' thought Gibbs. 'You have that machine that travels in time and space. You have a way to travel back in time and save Kate.'

Ducky turned around to look at his friend. He could see Gibbs was working through something in his head. "What is it, Jethro?"

"Duck, save Kate."

Ducky could see that Jethro wasn't joking around. "I can't, Jethro." Getting up from the chair, the doctor moved toward Gibbs.

"Why not? You have this…thingy that travels through time and space. You can save her. Bring her back to me."

"It wasn't meant to be."

"How the hell do you know?" yelled Gibbs. "She was too young to die. She still had things to do. Marry, have kids. Kate shouldn't be cheated out of those things. We left her in Indiana. We don't leave our people behind, Ducky, you know that. Your machine will save her from a sad piece of life."

"Jethro," said Ducky as he moved closer to his friend. "What of Ari?"

"What the hell do I care about that bastard?"

"If Kate lives so should he."

"Like hell, Duck!"

"Their lives are intertwined. Kate might be the other half of your soul, but Ari is intertwined with you both. You can't have her alive and not him. It would throw the balance of the world off."

"I don't care if he is next ruler of the universe, Ari can stay in hell for all I care," yelled Gibbs.

Ducky shook his head. Gibbs didn't understand about the balance of the universe. Well most humans didn't. Some were getting a clue about it. In all his travels as a proud Time Lord, Ducky knew a few things. Balance had to be kept in all things. Didn't mean he really followed the rule, he sometimes stepped over when it was easier to forget it himself. He didn't even try to save Adric when he died. He could have left a note for himself and asked for one of the other selves to save the boy. He never did. The two of them had been fighting with each other and neither would give an inch. Adric was someone else who never had a chance for a long life like Kate. Except the boy gave up his life to help the Doctor escape and the ship he was on, was really the "meteor" that would wipe out the dinosaurs.

"Ducky," said Gibbs. He had been watching the Time Lord thinking. Would Ducky go and save Kate or not?

"I'm sorry Jethro," said the Time Lord. "I was thinking of former lives and friends."

Walking up to Ducky, Gibbs watched the man. He thought for sure that the man was going to save Kate and bring her home.

Ducky studied Gibbs face. The Marine was coming out on Gibbs. Since the Marine in Gibbs was always there, there wasn't much else to do but either tell him yes or no.

"Alright, Jethro," said Ducky. "I will go get Kate and bring her home, but I want something from you."

"What do you need?"

"Is there a way to save the people on the dock without any of you going out?"

"We were able to jam of one the missiles and the rest were crashed. So if we radioed the ships and had them jam the missiles that might take care of everything."

"I want you to get the frequency of the missiles," said Ducky.

"I'll call McGee and get it for you," said Gibbs as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. As Gibbs started to dial the number, Ducky walked back over to the desk to get a pen and some paper. Moving back to Gibbs, he put it down on the table so the man could write down the information.

The Doctor decided he would use the TARDIS to stop the missiles. He could very easily jam the weapons from there. He just had to figure the rest of the idea out.

Gibbs wrote down the information and slid it back over to Ducky. The Time Lord smiled at him. Now he had to do one more thing and then he could leave.

"Jethro, I want one more thing from you."

"What is it Ducky?"

"Write yourself a note, so I can give it to you to keep you here at HQ."

"If it's in my own handwriting, I would believe it more then if you told me. Good idea, Ducky." Pulling out his pad that he wrote down his case notes on, he started to write the note to himself.

_Gibbs_

_Do as Ducky says. Don't question it. He has everything under control. LJG_

Handing the note to Ducky, "That should make me listen, if it doesn't then tell me to just stay put."

"Thank you Jethro," said Ducky as he put the note in his pocket. He moved over to the coat rack and got his coat. As he put it on, Gibbs moved over to him. Looking at the much younger man, "Where are you going?"

"With you, Ducky."

"No you can't. There can't be two Gibbs in one place. That would be disastrous. You have to stay here and wait for us." Pushing on the door, it opened and Ducky held it for Gibbs to go out. Once Gibbs was in the hall, Ducky turned the lights out in the morgue and left. "Now you go home and wait and I will do what I can."

"You call me when you get back."

"Why? You won't know the changes I made."

"Are you sure?"

Ducky laughed, "Yes, Jethro. Now go." The two of them stepped into the elevator and the door closed behind them.

Gibbs followed Ducky outside to his Morgan car. Pointing at the car, Ducky just smiled at Gibbs. Moving around to the trunk of the car, Ducky pulled out the odd key and placed it into the lock. Gibbs watched Ducky step into his time machine and disappear. Gibbs was going to have to make a trip to security and do something with the tape. He had turned back toward the building and stopped. If Ducky changed time, then it wouldn't matter. Gibbs smiled and walked toward his car. He was going to go work on the boat. It at least would give him something to thing about, though whatever he did to the boat would be changed, because he didn't really work on the boat. That made sense in a very weird way.

Ducky walked over to the coat rack in the TARDIS, took off his coat and put his hat up. Moving over to the control console, Ducky put in the coordinates. It took a matter of seconds and Ducky was back in time. As he stepped out of the TARDIS, it was in the same spot he had just left. It was a bright and beautiful day. It was really a good thing it wasn't ending the same way as it did the first time. Going inside, Ducky went straight into the bull pen looking for Gibbs.

Fornell was there talking to the others. They just found out that Ari was in town. No one could get a hold of Gibbs to warn him. Ducky stood there listening to the FBI agent talk. Ducky knew where they were. Ari was waiting for Gibbs at the coffee shop. The bomb was waiting for Gibbs to find it and get the innocent people out of there.

Ducky watched Fornell going up the stairs to MTAC. Well all the Time Lord could do now was wait for Gibbs to come back. It wouldn't be long now.

When Gibbs did come in, he looked very angry. Ducky knew that this wasn't the time to do any of this, but he had no choice. It had to be now before Gibbs went upstairs and talked to Director Morrow and Fornell about Ari.

Ducky got to Gibbs before anyone else could. Dragging him back into the elevator as soon as the door closed, Gibbs hit the emergency stop.

"What the hell is going on Duck?" Gibbs was past mad. He was working on doing his version of Mt. St. Helens.

Pulling out the note that Gibbs wrote, Ducky handed it to the Marine. Gibbs read it.

"What is going on?"

"Let's just say, you aren't going to have a good day, Jethro. You have to listen to me. It's very important. If you don't, you are going to lose Kate today." Ducky let the words sink into the Marines head. "Now you are to do what the director says. Do nothing about Ari. I've come back in time to stop something. You have to stay here with your team. I will fix the trouble. Then I will come back and try to explain it all to you. May I borrow Kate from you?"

"Kate? What happens to Kate?"

"Not now, Jethro. Just trust me. You will stay here. I don't care if the White House is struck by meteor, you stay here."

"All right," said Gibbs. "I'll get Kate to go with you."

"Thank you Jethro."

Gibbs hit the emergency stop again and the door opened. Kate and McGee were there when the door opened.

"Kate goes with Ducky," said Gibbs as he got off the elevator.

"All right, Gibbs," said Kate as she got on the elevator. "Gibbs, Director Morrow is looking for you. He is up in MTAC with Fornell."

"Thanks," said Gibbs as he walked away with McGee.

As the door slid closed, Ducky hit the button so that the two could leave the building. "Caitlin, my dear, we have so much to talk about and to do. It can wait until we are outside in my car."

"What is going on, Ducky?" asked Kate.

"Too much to go into at this second," said Ducky as they walked out of the building out into the personnel's parking lot. Ducky unlocked the car and held the door open for Kate. Kate got into the car. Ducky walked around car and got in. He started the car up and drove out of NCIS headquarters. Going into a park, Ducky parked the car. He still hadn't told Kate anything that was going on.

"Come, we are going into the TARDIS now." Ducky opened his car door. Kate followed him to the trunk. Unlocking the door, both of them stepped into the machine.

"Now what the hell is going on, Ducky?"

Ducky let out a breath, how do you tell someone that you stopped them from dying? "Caitlin, I was sent back in time to stop your…"

The time lord stopped talking. He walked out of the control room. Kate followed Ducky down a hallway. He went straight into another room. Kate found him and stopped short. She was standing in the TARDIS arboretum. There was sunlight coming from above. She could hear birds and a butterfly flew by her.

"Ducky what is going on? You were sent back in time to stop my what?"

"Your death, my dear." Ducky had a very painful look on his face.

Moving quickly over to Kate, he leads her to a bench to sit down on. "Are you alright?"

"Who sent you back?" asked Kate.

"Jethro sent me."

"Why?"

"I really can't answer that yet, but I'm needed in the control room. I need to stop the missiles from killing the families waiting on the dock. Why don't you stay here and relax and I will come back for you in a couple of minutes." Leaving the arboretum, Ducky moved back to the control room. Moving the TARDIS from the park and into the roof of the warehouse, Ducky worked on jamming the missiles. Turning on the view screen, the time lord watched as the missiles hit the water and not the hundred people waiting on the dock for their love ones to debark from the ships. Seeing his job was done, Ducky went back to where Kate was still sitting.

Kate was looking at some flowers. Nothing like she had ever seen before on Earth. These were large purple flowers with bright pink centers. Ducky watched Kate for a couple of seconds before letting her know that he was there. He still had one more thing to do. It was the dangerous part of this trip. He still had to get Ari before Gibbs killed him. Ducky stopped. If Kate was alive, then Gibbs wouldn't go after Ari. Though the way everyone felt about Ari, yes Gibbs would still go after the man.

Ducky had to locate Ari and get him into the TARDIS. That was going to be the tricky part. Ducky had weapon aboard and he could knock him out that way, drag the bastard aboard and put him in a room with a forcefield around it so he couldn't get out until Ducky was able to reason with him. That made Ducky laugh, Ari Haswari seeing any reason other then his own twisted logic. Ducky laughed to himself and thought, 'I should just kill the bastard and let it be, but I can't. With him dead, Caitlin would be lost in the imbalance."

Walking toward Kate, "Caitlin."

"All right, Ducky what is going on?"

"Well I have to tell you, I'm so glad to see you. Then I must say this, today you should have died, but Jethro wanted you back. So I came back in time to save you."

"Why would Gibbs want to save me?"

"I shan't even try to answer that one, my dear, but what Jethro wants, Jethro gets. We have a bit of problem. I need you to help me find Ari. You see in the other time line, both you and Ari die. If I save you, I must save him. I can use what I know to lead us to places where Ari was before, but it won't guarantee that he will be in those places now. I thought we would start at the place we know for sure he was at to get him."

"Where would that be, Ducky?"

"Where he killed you."

Kate's face drained to a pale color. Ducky was glad she was sitting down. "Why did he kill me?"

"Well he was supposed to be killing Gibbs as a test to get into the DC Al-Qaeda cell. Gibbs knew that there was another reason. He killed Ari in his basement the day of your funeral. Gibbs never told me anything else. So I think we should pop back in time for a few minutes and see if we can catch Ari off guard and bring him aboard."

"Do you think we can bring him into the TARDIS without too much force?"

"No I don't, but I have a weapon in mind that will get the good doctor aboard and we don't even have to wing him."

"All right Ducky, how ever you want to play this, I'm up for it."

"Thank you Caitlin. I thought I could count on you. You might want to have you gun ready just in case but, we really shouldn't need it." Ducky held out his hand to Kate, she took it as she stood up. They walked out of the room and out into the hallway. They walked a bit before Ducky stopped at a door with five different locks on it. Pulling something out of his pocket, a long thing that was the size of a pencil. Kate watched Ducky use it on each of the locks.

"What is that?" asked Kate.

"It's a sonic screwdriver. It can open any lock anywhere. Very handy tool to have, lost so many keys around here, that I don't even bother keeping track of them any more. I can open doors up with this."

When the door opened, Ducky reached in and touched something and the lights came on. The place was covered in cobwebs. Dust was everywhere. Ducky walked in and Kate followed him. Walking to the back of the room, Ducky opened a cabinet up and pulled out a box marked 'Goa'uld' on it. Opening it up, Ducky removed something that looked like a coiled snake.

"What is this place, Ducky?"

"Oh the armory," said the doctor. "Though I've never really carried any weapons aboard, have collected a couple of weapons that I found were interesting. This one is called a Zat'nik'tel or Zat for short. If I shot you with it, you would be unconscious for awhile. If I shot you twice with it, you would die. If I shot for the third time your body would disintegrate. I'm planning to make Ari unconscious with it and we can bring him aboard. He will wake up with a headache and most likely very angry at us, but we will give him time to calm down."

Kate smiled at Ducky; she liked this idea a lot. "Well let's go get him then."

"All right, Caitlin, we shall." The two left the armory and headed back for the control room. Ducky set the TARDIS to hop over to the correct building that Ari would be shooting from. He didn't materialize the ship on the roof yet. They waited for Ari to show up.

The man appeared as he did the last time, though this time around no NCIS agents were found on the other roof. The missiles were sent on their way and Ari and his people watched as the missiles crashed into the water. The cell started to move off the roofs when the TARDIS appeared right behind Ari. Ducky opened the door and shot Ari with the Zat before the man could use his weapon.

Kate helped Ducky drag Ari into the TARDIS. They both let go of him when they got into the control room. Ari laid on the floor like a lump.

Kate walked by him and kicked him in the ribs, "That is for killing me!"

Ducky smiled at the woman as he worked the controls of the ship. When he had them set, he moved back over to Ari. Kate moved to the other side and grabbed any arm. The two of them dragged him into a bedroom not far from the control room.

"Who's room is this?" asked Kate.

"Oh it was Ace's room. You would have loved Ace, Caitlin." Ducky smiled. "We will remove a few items from the room, so Ari can't use anything against us." Ducky grabbed just about everything that wasn't nailed down. Most of it he dumped into another room.

"Hey Ducky," said Kate. "If you aren't from this planet, then who is that as your mother?"

Ducky started to laugh. It had been so long since he thought of her as anyone other then his mother. "She was a companion from a very long time ago. Her real name is Barbara Wright, she use to be a school teacher in England. I found her in this terrible old folk's home with Alzheimer's. I couldn't just leave her there. I took the name of her dead son, so she thinks I'm really her son."

"You are an amazing person, Ducky."

"Thank you, Caitlin," said Ducky. "Now I have to get the forcefield up around the room before Ari comes too. It shouldn't take me very long. We do not want Ari walking around here just yet. I think it would very amusing to see him get lost in the TARDIS, though to find his remains on cold dark night might be too much even for me."

Kate started to laugh. Ducky was such an interesting person. She thought it would be fun to spend some nice quiet time with him and hear all the things he had seen and done. Following Ducky back to the control room, she stood off to the side watching Ducky work on the forcefield. He did seem to know what he was doing.

Looking up, Ducky saw Kate watching him. He smiled at her. Kate smiled back. Then the yelling started from out in the hall. "I think our guest is awake Caitlin."

"I think you're right," said Kate. "Shall we go see how he is doing?"

"Yes, we shall." The two walk back into the hall to see Ari throwing himself against the doorway and being bounced back by the forcefield.

"Well that worked," said Kate.

"Indeed," said Ducky. Moving closer to Ari, he said "Hello Dr. Haswari and welcome to the TARDIS. I'm the captain of the ship and Ms. Caitlin Todd is acting as out host. I hope you will enjoy your time with us."

"What the hell is going on here?" yelled Ari. "What did you use on me?"

"All in due time," said Ducky. "For now, I will get you something for your headache and some food. Caitlin are you hungry?"

"I'm getting there Ducky."

"Well let me show you the kitchen area," said Ducky. "It's nothing fancy, mind you, but you will find all kinds of food, and drinks in there. You can fix yourself something to eat and I will get get Ari something for his head." They moved down the hallway to a door with a window cut into it. He opened the door for Kate and let her go in first.

It was a simple room lot of metal counters and that was about it.

"Now let me show how every thing works," said Ducky. Touching a place on the wall, a panel came down and Kate could see buttons.

Each one had a letter that reminded Kate of the Greek letters from college.

"Now you can't read the words, but this one in the left corner will pop out the cupboards," said Ducky as he pushed it. The cupboard came out of the wall above their heads. "It has plates, bowls, cups and stuff. The button below it, will give you the silverware." Ducky pushed that one and a drawer left of Kate came out from under the counter. "The button on the right hand corner will give you the cooler." The cooler popped up behind them. "The button below that will give you…" Ducky stopped talking. He looked like he was trying to choose the right word. "Well the thing works like a microwave oven, but better." It appeared on the same counter as the cooler. "I could cook you a whole meal in it in ten minutes and you would have thought I slaved over the stove for hours."

Kate moved over to look at the microwave oven. It sure didn't look like the one she had in her place. "All right how do you make it work?"

"Well," said Ducky as he moved over and touched a panel on the surface the oven. This one looked like it should be on one of NASA's shuttles.

"If you want Caitlin," said Ducky. "I can switch this over to voice commands for you. This one you need a degree from twenty-two colleges and none of them are on Earth."

"Sounds like a good idea," answered Kate.

Ducky started to push buttons on it. "You can talk to it now."

"What do I need to say to it?"

"That should be enough for it to know your voice."

"Oh, okay," said Kate. She was impressed and confused too.

"Now," said Ducky, "If there is anything you want that we don't have, or you want something really quick and don't want to bother, come over here." Ducky moved to the end of the counter with the cooler and oven. Touching the wall an object moved out. "This would be my version of a Star Trek replicator. It will give you whatever you ask for in about two-point zero seconds, if that long. I should tell you, it only does food. So don't even try to get it to do anything else for you. You'll give it one very big headache. I remember once when Peri tried to get it to give her a pair of jeans; oh it was throwing out soups for a week. What a mess to clean up."

"I'll remember that Ducky," said Kate. She smiled because that was the first time since he brought her aboard the TARDIS that Ducky had gone into a story.

"Now you fix some food for you and Ari and I will go get something for his head." Ducky turned and went out the room.

Kate looked in the cooler to see if she could find something to eat. What was in there, she didn't even know. Moving over to the replicator, she said, and then started to giggle, "I'd like two egg salad sandwiches." Kate then continued with, among giggles, "Two Earl Grey teas no make those three Earl Grey teas, hot". Then Kate started to laugh. It wasn't even in Picard's voice, but it was good enough. She said it and now she was glad she did.

Ducky stepped into an alcove in the hall. He touched the wall and a cupboard came out of the wall. Opening the cupboard, Ducky removed a small bottle and the cupboard went back into the wall. When he returned to the kitchen, Kate had some food ready.

"Ducky, you didn't say whether or not you wanted something to eat or not, but I did get you some tea."

"Oh thank you, Caitlin. Tea sounds so nice about now. I'll fix myself something to eat after we deal with Ari. Hopefully he will be in a good mood by the time we get back."

"I wouldn't count on it."

"I'm not my dear."

After Dr. Mallard and Caitlin Todd had walked away from Ari, the man started to look around the room to see what he could use to get out. There wasn't much he could use. It looked like the room had been cleaned out of everything that he could have used as a weapon. They had removed everything from Ari's person. They even got the knife in his boot. Ari heard some movement in the hall, moving back to the door, he saw Dr. Mallard in the hall. Caitlin wasn't with him. 'Wonder where he is off to?' A few seconds later, Ari saw Dr. Mallard return with something in his hand. The man went through the door again.

'They aren't going to let me out of here as long as I'm angry,' thought Ari. 'So I need to take a step back here and try to figure out what is going on? Gibbs isn't here yet so NCIS has nothing to do with this. Fornell isn't here yet, so the FBI doesn't know anything about this. Why would Dr. Mallard knock me out and bring me here? It can't be payback for what I did to Gerald. It has to be something else, but what?' Ari paced around the room. He knew someone was watching him. Turning toward the door, Ari saw Caitlin and Dr. Mallard. "Hello," said Ari a bit nicer then the last time he spoke to them. "So can you tell me what the hell is going on?" He said it nicely, well for him. He didn't yell at the two of them.

"Well that is a story I have to put to both of you, Doctor Haswari," said Ducky. He wasn't sure why he was being so formal with the man; Ari did kidnap Caitlin and him with Gerald and shot the poor boy. Most of the time, Ducky just referred to Ari as the bastard. Now it was very formal. "First let me give you something for the pain in your head and Caitlin has some food for you."

"I made you an egg salad sandwich. I hope that is alright?" said Kate.

"That is fine, Caitlin," said Ari.

"Put the tray on the floor Caitlin," said Ducky. She did and removed her tea, sandwich and Ducky's tea. "Slide it closer to the forcefield." Kate did as Ducky asked. Ari watched Dr. Mallard move something from his pocket, a small bottle. Removing two pills, Ducky placed them on the tray with the food. Stepping back, Ducky pulled a control box from another pocket. He did something and a small opening at the bottom of the force field came up and Kate slid the tray in for Ari, then the force field went back to normal.

Kate sat down on the floor on one side of the forcefield and Ari sat on the other. Ducky picked up his tea cup off the floor.

"Well now, how do I start this conversation with you two," said Ducky. "Let's just say, you've both have had crappy days and move on."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ari.

"Well if I hadn't interfered, you would have killed Kate today and in a few days, Gibbs would have killed you."

Both Kate and Ari stopped eating their sandwiches and looked up at Ducky.

"You did hear me correct, you're both safe now."

"Why did you save us?" asked Kate.

"Well Jethro asked me to save you, Caitlin. He could have cared less about Ari. Jethro wanted him to be roasting in hell."

"Then why did you save me?" asked Ari.

"For balance in the universe," said Ducky as he sipped his tea.

"Balance," said Kate.

"Why if you saved her without me, would it be unbalance the universe?" asked Ari.

"Your lives are intertwined together. In your past lives, future lives, they are always intertwined. Well yours and Gibbs." Ducky just smiled at them. The two could take that anyway that they wanted. He wasn't going to tell them everything. "Now that you are calmed down, I'll let you out of there, but I should warn you there is a forcefield on the ship that stops violence on the TARDIS. So you can't bash in either Caitlin's or my head with anything. At the same time, we can't harm you either."

"Alright, Doctor Mallard," said Ari as the forcefield was released from the room. Stepping into the hallway, Ari looked at Caitlin and smiled. Well if he was going to be stuck somewhere he didn't want to be, being stuck with Special Agent Caitlin Todd wasn't too terribly bad.

"Now," said Ducky. "Let's get back to the control room and see just how much damage we've done to the future."

"Why do you say that, Ducky?" asked Kate.

"I've seen some bad things happen when you mess around with the future, all because someone had to save their father from dying. At least Rose got to know her father a little bit," said Ducky as he pushed on the door to the control room.

Ari followed the two into the heart of the TARDIS. He was surprised at the way the room looked. He hadn't ever seen anything like this before. "What is this thing?" Asked Ari.

"Well it a time machine at this very moment," said Ducky as he worked the controls. "I'm sending us just a few minutes into the future from Kate's death. If the Reapers are there already, then all hell is breaking loose."

"What is a Reaper Ducky?" asked Kate.

"They are these shadowy creatures that look like dragons, but they kill everyone in sight. They don't care if it's your turn to die or not. Until the right person dies, they will continue to kill people. Once the right person dies, the world is righted and everyone would return as it was before." A screen came out of the wall above the group, everyone turned up to it.

"Where are we?" asked Kate.

"We are back at NCIS headquarters, the TARDIS hasn't materialized yet, so no one can see us. I just want to look." The screen showed them to be in the parking garage. Someone went running by the TARDIS and a big black dragon was right behind it. "I was afraid of this," said Ducky. "We need to talk to Jethro." Moving a few of the controls, they moved from the garage to the bullpen. Looking at the other two, Ducky cleared his throat. "You two will have to stay in here for now. I need to get Jethro in here so we can talk."

"Sure, Ducky," said Kate.

"If you must, Doctor," said Ari.

Ducky did a couple of things to the controls and did the door release. He walked out of the TARDIS that was looking like Kate's desk. No one was around to see him step out.

Tony came running down from MTAC. "Ducky is Kate still with you?"

"Yes she is, Anthony," said Ducky. "Where is Jethro?"

"He is up in MTAC with the Director trying to figure out what the hell is going on."

"Thanks," said Ducky as he started up the stairs. Letting himself into the secure room, the doctor moved down to where Gibbs and Jenny where standing.

"What the hell are those things?" demanded Gibbs.

"They are called Reapers," said Ducky.

Gibbs turned slowly toward Ducky. "Why is it, I don't think I'm going to like anything else that is about to come out of your mouth, Doctor?"

"Because you know this is your fault, entirely. Jethro, we have to talk. I think it would be best if we did it somewhere else."

"Is there something I should know," asked the new Director.

"No, Jenny there isn't," said Gibbs. The two men turned and walked out of MTAC. They went down the stairs. Ducky moved over to Kate's desk. "Don't you think we should go someplace quieter then this Ducky?"

The Doctor pulled out his key and used it on the front of the desk. Ducky smiled at Gibbs. The younger man just shook his head and followed the older man into the TARDIS.

Once inside, Gibbs saw Kate and Ari standing there, going for his gun, Gibbs fired at Ari. The bullet left the gun and stopped mid-flight towards Ari and fell to the floor. The gun was jerked out of Gibbs hands.

"I should have warned you, Jethro, there is a forcefield on the TARDIS that won't allow violence in the ship. Sorry about that. You can't hurt him as long as he is inside the ship. He can't hurt any of us either," said Ducky with a smile on his face. At least that kept both Earthling men from trying to kill each other. "As you see the Reapers are the by product of not letting Caitlin and Ari die. The Reapers will continue to kill everyone until they get to them. So do you let me put back time as it was before?"

Ducky knew how hard this was on Gibbs. He had to make the decision. Or just let Caitlin and Ari decide. Either way it would go back to the way it was. Caitlin would be dead and they would be very sad to loose her.

"No there has to be another way," said Gibbs.

"There is no other way, Jethro," said Ducky.

Gibbs moved over to Kate, taking her hand in his. "There are so many things you still need to do with your life, Kate. Get married, have kids, get a divorce, Kick Ari's ass."

Kate started to laugh. Ari gave Gibbs an annoyed look.

"Ducky says our lives are intertwined in the future, so maybe there I will get to do those things with you." Kate let that hang there for a second or two. "Ducky, please take me back so I can die like I'm suppose to."

"Kate," whispered Gibbs.

"No this is how it has to be." Looking at Ari. "You know you have to go back too?"

"Yes I do. Doctor Mallard," said Ari. "I think you better take me back first. I promise Caitlin that when I kill you, I will make it as painless as possible."

"Thank you Ari," said Kate. Both of them looked at Ducky. He finally moved over to the control panel.

"Ari," said Ducky. "This is where you get off." The door release was undone.

Ari moved over to the door and stepped out. He found his rifle and gear still were it was.

The TARDIS disappeared. Moving a little further back in time, the TARDIS landed back into the bullpen at NCIS HQ.

Kate moved toward the door. She turned and smiled at the two men. "I will miss you. Hey Ducky, did Tony come down to the morgue and look at my tattoo?"

Ducky smiled at her, "No he was a real gentleman about it."

"Well that is good to know," said Kate.

"Hey Kate," said Gibbs. "What is your tattoo?"

Smiling again, Kate opened the door. "Tell him after I'm gone, Ducky." She stepped through the door and out into the NCIS HQ.

Ducky closed the door and moved the TARDIS again through time.

"What about me, Ducky?" asked Gibbs.

"I will put you back in your right time zone," said Ducky. "Her tattoo, Jethro is the Marine Corp emblem." Releasing the door again, Ducky moved over and opened the door. Gibbs and Ducky stood in the bullpen. The place was like normal, except for Gibbs' team not being there. Ducky walked over to the Kate's desk and opened up a drawer. He removed one of Kate's sketch pads. The Doctor flipped through the pages and stopped on one. He handed it to Gibbs.

Gibbs looked at his own face on the page.

"There is one for all of us," said Ducky. "She cared a lot for us, Jethro."

"I know," said Gibbs. "Ducky, there is something I need to tell you. I don't want anyone to hear this. Let's go down to the Morgue and talk."

"Alright, Jethro." The two men walked to the elevator. When it opened, the two got in and the doors slid shut. Gibbs hit the emergency stop. Ducky just stood there waiting for Jethro to say what he had to say.

"I didn't kill Ari." Hitting the button again the elevator started to move again.

It didn't look like Jethro was doing to say anything more. Ducky just let it be for now.


End file.
